Faculty Publications

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Open Access
Bridging scholarly theory and forensic practice: toward a more pedagogical model of rhetorical criticism
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1998) Ott, Brian L., author; National Forensic Association, publisher
In this essay, the author contends that competitors in the event of rhetorical criticism, or communication analysis (CA) as it is alternatively called, are locked into a model that poses serious questions about the educational value of the event. In an effort to narrow the ever widening gap between theory and practice and to heighten the pedagogical value of contest rhetorical criticism, the author proposes to chart briefly the chief features of the existing RC model, to identify the limitations posed by that model, and to suggest several viable alternatives.
Open Access
Counter-imagination as interpretive practice: futuristic fantasy and The Fifth Element
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2004) Aoki, Eric, author; Ott, Brian L., author; Organization for Research on Women and Communication, publisher
This essay concerns the relationship between popular cinematic visions of the future and present day identity politics. The authors argue that despite its futuristic setting celebrating technological progress and multiculturalism, Luc Besson's 1997 film The Fifth Element constructs sexual and racial difference in a manner that privileges and naturalizes White heterosexual masculinity. The essay offers counter-imagination as an interpretive practice that destabilizes the categories of sexual and racial difference as they are negotiated within appeals to popular imagination.
Open Access
"I'm Bart Simpson, who the hell are you?" A study in postmodern identity (re)construction
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2003) Ott, Brian L., author; Blackwell Publishing, publisher
Difference- and subsequently, identity- is now defined and affirmed through consumer choice. Though generally the author is compelled by the theoretical claims surrounding this apparent shift, in this article he wishes to problematize and then clarify those claims in an important way. Efforts to theorize shifting conceptions of identity have preceded largely without, in Kellner's words, "systematic and sustained examination of the actual texts and practices of popular media culture". Indeed, van Poecke's essay, one of the most sophisticated treatments of this subject, makes not a single reference to a specific media text. Consequently, much of the existing literature regarding postmodern identity represents the break from modernist notions far too cleanly, and in a manner that does not adequately reflect the lived experiences of present-day subjects. The hope is that by studying a specific case, the theory can be refined so as to better assist people in negotiating their rhetorical environments. To accomplish this aim, this article undertakes an analysis of the Fox network's thirty-minute, award-winning animated series, The Simpsons.
Open Access
Intertextuality: interpretive practice and textual strategy
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2000) Walter, Cameron, author; Ott, Brian L., author; National Communication Association, publisher
In contemporary media scholarship, the concept of intertextuality is used to describe both an interpretive practice of audiences and a stylistic device consciously employed by producers of media. This study examines how the frequent, scholarly conflation of these two conceptions has weakened the theoretical usefulness of both perspectives. Turning to the view of intertextuality as stylistic device, the essay identifies parodic allusion, creative appropriation, and self-reflexive reference as three distinct intertextual strategies. It concludes by considering the ways audiences use these devices to define their identities and order their experiences.
Open Access
Memorializing the Holocaust: Schindler's List and public memory
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1996) Ott, Brian L., author; Gordon and Breach, publisher
No effort to memorialize the Holocaust has been as far reaching in American culture as Steven Spielberg's 1994 film, Schindler's List. As a result of its nearly unanimous acclaim, Schindler's List is now being heralded as a watershed event in Hollywood. Reviewers hold it up as a model of how entertainment can be used to convey a serious educational message? In light of its cultural scope, this essay seeks to describe the relationship between the film and public memory surrounding the Holocaust. While Schindler's List is undoubtedly an aesthetic and artistic masterpiece, the author contends that it not only fails to create but structurally disallows self-reflective spaces for internal memory-work. Rather than prompting us to struggle with the difficult issues of the Holocaust, the film is structured in such a way as to completely shoulder our memory-burden. By analyzing its formal elements, the author demonstrates how Schindler's List fuels our desire for resolution and comfort which it then fulfills by constructing an ideologically conservative sanctuary for the spectator. The author concludes the essay by considering the social and political implications of such a project. In advancing the argument of this essay, the author does not wish to judge the film in any simplistic sense. There is much about the film that is important, provocative, and productive. The author believes it is possible to retain these elements while at the same time suggesting the film's principal shortcomings.
Open Access
Memory and myth at the Buffalo Bill Museum
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2005) Aoki, Eric, author; Ott, Brian L., author; Dickinson, Greg, author; Western States Communication Association, publisher
Few places tell the myth of the American frontier more vigorously than the Buffalo Bill Museum does in Cody, Wyoming. Traveling to the museum through the 'Western' landscape of Wyoming into the foothills of the Rockies prepares visitors for the tale of Western settlement. This narrative, which works to secure a particular vision of the West, draws upon the material artifacts of Cody's childhood and his exploits as scout, Pony Express rider and showman. The museum retells the story that Cody first told to millions at the turn of the twentieth century in his Wild West arena show. In this paper, we argue that the museum privileges images of masculinity and Whiteness, while using the props, films, and posters of Buffalo Bill's Wild West to carnivalize the violent conflicts between Anglo Americans and Native Americans.
Open Access
Mixed messages: resistance and reappropriation in rave culture
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2003) Ott, Brian L., author; Herman, Bill D., author; Western States Communication Association, publisher
This essay concerns the dynamic tension between resistance and reappropriation in the youth subcultural practice of raving. We argue that the transgressive potential of underground rave culture lies primarily in its privileging of communion, which is facilitated along the intersecting axes of social space, authorship, the body, and the drug Ecstasy. The commodification of rave culture is demonstrated to be linked to a shifting consciousness reflected in changing attitudes toward Ecstasy, the relocation of dance culture into clubs, and the redefinition of the DJ as artist and superstar. A concluding section considers the implications of resistance and reappropriation in rave culture for social change and the exercise of power.
Open Access
Popular imagination and identity politics: reading the future in Star Trek: The Next Generation
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2001) Aoki, Eric, author; Ott, Brian L., author; Western States Communication Association, publisher
Through an analysis of the popular syndicated television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, this essay begins to theorize the relationship between collective visions of the future and the identity politics of the present. Focusing on the tension between the show's utopian rhetoric of the future and its representational practices with regard to race, gender, and sexuality, it is argued that The Next Generation invites audiences to participate in a shared sense of the future that constrains human agency and (re)produces the current cultural hegemony with regard to identity politics. The closing section calls for critics to continue politicizing mediated images that appeal to popular imagination and to develop and implement a pedagogical practice of counter-imagination.
Open Access
(Re)Locating pleasure in media studies: toward an erotics of reading
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2004) Ott, Brian L., author; Routledge, publisher
ab-stract, (n.) 1. a summary of points (as of a writing) usu. presented in skeletal form.(adj.) 1. difficult to understand: abstruse. (vt.) 1. dissociate, remove, separate. This essay concerns how language is, at once, structured (producing meaning) and infinite (destabilizing meaning). Both functions of language are tied to pleasure. Contemporary critical media studies, it is argued, has attacked the pleasure (plaisir) of language's structuring function while simultaneously repressing the pleasure (jouissance) of language's dismantling function. Is this to(o) abstract?

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